Introduction

The main purpose of this business strategy report is to go through the fundamentals of strategy evaluation approaches and the implementation process of different evaluation strategies. For better understanding of each of the concepts, an organisation has been chosen in terms of its current strategies as per its 2016-2017 report. Boots is a pharmacy-led health and beauty products and services company which is quite popular in UK and it has become a worldwide phenomenon when top brands of Pharmaceutical and beauty products industry has been taken into account. The main aim here is to plan two different alternative strategies for this international pharmaceutical company with a perfect harmony based on the company’s mission, vision and objectives (Ackermann & Audretsch,  2013). Strategy evaluation and justification of the two strategies is the core part of this report along with identifying the roles and responsibilities of the managers of Boots during strategy implementation. Resource requirements and the process to test the suitability of those resources along with project management methods in line with SMART targets are the other core sections of this report which have been taken into consideration by analysing the business strategies of Boots (Alstete, 2013).

3.1 Alternative Business Strategies of Boots

A company should think about international business expansion every time when it is possible. There are different methods which an organisation can utilise in the form of robust business strategies to achieve successful expansion. According to Thompson, there are five major business strategies which nowadays top organisations and firms are using as alternative business strategies (Bharadwaj et al., 2013). Those alternative business strategies are- market entry strategy, Substantive Growth, Limited Growth, Disinvestment and Porter’s Generic Strategy (Basili et al.,2013). Looking at the strategic planning of the international pharmaceutical and beauty Product Company Boots, two alternative strategies have been selected to analyse its aptness. Market Entry Strategy and Limited Growth Strategies have been considered here in this report to evaluate the appropriateness of the alternative strategies of Boots (Bharadwaj et al., 2013).

Market Entry Strategy

This alternative strategy is quite imperative for the pharmacy-led and beauty product organisation so that it can enter into a whole new market in an entirely new location. The market entry strategy can be categorised into six different strategies, that are- organic growth, merger, acquisition, strategic alliance, licensing and franchising (Fiorino & Bhan, 2014).

In case of organic growth strategy, an organisation has to start accomplishing the development milestones so that at the beginning of business expansion, organic development can be possible (Grover & Kohli, 2013). This alternative strategy eliminates the chances of development by acquisition or joining up with other enterprises from the business development equation.

On the other hand, in case of merger the company join with another enterprise so that a combined entity can be created with proper lawful consolidation by making stronger and coherent amalgamation (Hoejmose, Brammer & Millington, 2013).

In case of acquisition, a company acquires another enterprise by buying and assembling the whole venture. Strategic alliance means two or more groups agree upon the shared goals and objectives for which they allow the sharing of assets. In case of licensing, there is always a mother company which is called the licensor that permits a different company so that it can utilise its trademark to deal with the products and services in a new market (Hoffman & Woody, 2013). Franchising reflects the alternative strategy of taking profit from another company which uses the main company’s trademark, methods of working, enterprise kind. With this approach, the company is able to get market share in the international business world by franchising in different locations.

Limited Growth Strategy

In case of limited growth strategy, Boots has to think about four different factors mainly. These factors are interrelated with each other while thinking about business expansion in a new location.

Boots follows this alternative strategy during its current expansion in the U.S. and other European markets. It revolves around the four factors, that are- market penetration, market development, product development strategic innovation.

In addition to the alternative strategy, for evaluation of the appropriateness of the strategy, Boots prefers the Three Processes Evaluation strategy (Higgins, Omer & Phillips, 2015). This strategy evaluation process includes measuring of the effectiveness of the above-mentioned strategies during a specific scenario and this evaluation method also helps the pharmaceutical and beauty product organisation to conduct its SWOT analysis in a particular circumstance to know the internal environmental status. Johnson and Scholes presented this corporate strategy model to evaluate the alternative strategy as per three fundamental success criteria given below.

Suitability        

Suitability is the evaluative criterion that helps the company to think about the rationale of the market entry and limited growth strategy. Here, the key point to which the company focuses is that- Would the alternative strategies work or not (Higgins, Omer & Phillips, 2015). This factor also ensures that the merging and limited growth strategy perfectly address the core strategic issues those are underlined by the strategic position of Boots. It focuses on some other aspects, like-

• The economic sense of both the strategies are effective
• Economies of scale can be obtained along with economies of scope with the alternative strategies
• The strategies are perfectly suitable for the organisational capabilities and environment.

There are three different tools which Boots uses as per the market scenario to evaluate suitability and those tools are- ranking strategic options, What-if analysis and Decision trees.

Feasibility

Both of the alternative strategies are aligned with the resource requirement concern which is quite important for Boots. Here, feasibility is the measure that evaluates the alternative strategies as per the requirement of resources for the implementation process (Klettner, Clarke & Boersma, 2014). So, it would not be wrong to state that, merger and limited growth strategy are absolutely feasible when it is about funding, information, time and people.

The tools used by Boots for this evaluation process are- cash flow analysis as well as forecasting, break-even analysis and resource deployment analysis.

Acceptability

What-if analysis and stakeholder mapping are the two major tools that Boots utilises to evaluate this acceptability factor when it is about merger and limited growth strategy. This criterion only focuses on the expectations of the customers, shareholders and employees of Boots and it seems they are happy with the success rate related to the alternative strategies in terms of performance outcomes, stakeholder reactions, risk management and return.

The expectations of shareholders about increasing wealth, career improvements in case of employees and value for money expectation of the customers can be fulfilled by these alternative strategies of Boots and with this, it is confirmed that both the strategies are acceptable in terms of return (Oestreicher & Zalmanson,2012). When it is about risk factor, the strategies deal with consequences as well as probability of financial and non-financial failures which is quite minimal in case of Boots. Likely reactions can be seen in case of stakeholders while implementing merger and product innovation, development, market penetration and development strategies.

3.2 Selection of the appropriate strategy and justification

Among the above-mentioned alternative strategies, Boots follows the merger alternative strategy as it is much safer to just get joined with a company that knows better about the marketplaces of a whole new place. By the merging of Boots with Walgreens, a new entity the WBA (Walgreens Boots Alliance) was founded in 2014. With this alternative strategy, the pharmacy-based and beauty product and service organisation successfully entered into the markets of Puerto Rico and the United States. The combined approach of Boots successfully created a new entity which has now its operations and management in more than 25 nations all over the world. Therefore, synergies were brought along by this merging which made it possible to reach at the net cost synergies around $799 million in the 2015 fiscal year.

In addition to this, the limited growth strategy is also followed by Boots looking at the intense competition going on in the domestic, national and international markets of pharmaceutical industry and beauty product industry. So, with this strategy, the company can easily focus on the international market by complying with four basic factors, that are- market penetration, market development, product development and innovation. By following market penetration, Boots tries to penetrate an untouched market in which people will appreciate the brand name and the quality of the products. With the most excellent core competencies, the company enters into a new market against many competitors with the market penetration strategy. Boots also tries to evolve within the market which it does by increasing its business geographically and by returning to the ground level shoppers. Product development is followed by considering the feedback of the consumers in the marketplace and the company has to make the products and services better as per the expectations of the customers in terms of quality and attractiveness. Product and service innovation and replacement of the products by new products and services come under the last significant step of limited growth strategy adopted by Boots for effective international business expansion. Looking at the three processes evaluation method, it wouldn’t be wrong to state that both the alternative strategies are absolutely fit with market scenario of Boots. Market entry strategies are necessary which in this case, the pharmacy-based health and beauty product company has to utilise so that it can enter into a new market, such as- markets of Asian and various European countries. Merger is the best possible choice in accordance with the financial and resource availability of the company. However, the limited growth strategy is significant while thinking about business expansion by strengthening the brand name by product development and integration of innovative approaches and techniques to the products and services as well as to the operations and management system of Boots. On the other hand, this strategy has crucial significance when the figureheads of the company think about market penetration where there are already a number of competitors present before the company and they have already established marketplaces with diversified products and services in the same industry. After entering into these markets, Boots has to consider market development by the STP strategies and that of the use of proper marketing mixes and limited growth strategies have a vital role when it comes to developing a specific market.

Task 4

4.1 Assessment regarding the roles and responsibility of the Boots managers in terms of strategy implementation

The major roles regarding strategy implementation have been defined by Sadler and these roles and responsibilities are followed by Boots in terms of envisioning future, harmony with the strategic issues of the organisation as well as embodying changes. The Business Development Manager of Boots follows the first role related to strategy implementation which is about envisioning the future strategies (Rothaermel, 2015). For this, the manager ensures that clear-cut and open communication related to the strategy discussion is there when it is about both the internal and the external parties. Here, robust communication is needed for smooth implementation of the strategy between the shareholders, employees, partners and the organisation, the internal parties and that of the consumers who are the external parties. All the individuals of the organisation are committed towards the strategies or not, evaluating this is the second role of the business development manager so that the organisation can be aligned suitably to deliver the strategy. The manager also has to motivate the employees and the external parties so that the strategies can be empowered in case of a considerable change (Higgins, Omer & Phillips, 2015). Embodying change is the main role of the manager after the implementation of a strategy that requires organisational change; here it is the responsibility of the manager to act like a strategic leader (Rothaermel, 2015).

Table 1: Activity Schedule

On the other hand, the roles and responsibilities of an area manager of Boots also affect the strategy implementation process. The top management level of Boots is the implementer of the specific strategy, but the area managers have to cope with the strategy implementation process at the ground level. Here, the key roles and responsibilities of the area manager are- sense making related to the strategy, reinterpretation along with adjustment approaches related to strategic responses and working as advisers for the senior management of Boots. It has been stated by Sadler that the outsiders have much more responsibilities when it comes to strategy implementation and Boots respects this theory.

Table: Responsibility Chart

R- Responsible; A- Accountable; C- Consulted; I- Informed

4.2 Analysis based on the resource requirements so that the new strategy can be implemented

Evaluation of the resource requirements in case of Boots involves the deciding factor related to the materials as well as resource allocation factors of placing the resources appropriately in the different departments of products and services development. The outlet stores of Pharmacy and beauty products of Boots have to be given as much human resource power as they need and for this, the most excellent and reliable suppliers are chosen by the managers so that they can fulfil the demands of the customers (Klettner, Clarke & Boersma, 2014). The resource requirements therefore also involve the costs and funding related to effective training and development programmes for the employee performance progress. With this, the company always comes up with the most talented candidates who can work as a team for the greater good of the organisation in terms of the strategic plans and issues of it.

Material allocations as well as time allocation are the crucial factors that decide the quality and improvement level of the company as per the viewpoints of the consumers. Robust delivery methods and discreet packaging come under the resource requirements for which the company expend more and more without compromising the quality, appropriateness factor and acceptability. The physical resources as well as human resource are considered as the main resource requirements for Boots. Physical resource requirements involve production resources, marketing resources and finance resources for which the company focuses on the implementation of interactive strategies as these strategies reflect quality improvement methods (Klettner, Clarke & Boersma, 2014). When it comes to development of the human resources, the company focuses on the implementation of learning along with development activities so that new talents will come to the front.

4.3 Contribution of SMART targets towards achieving strategy implementation in Boots

SMART targets of Boots are-

• To improve the brand image by implementing robust business strategies and integrated marketing communication
• To develop one thousand retail stores of Boots in different rural and urban areas with the international business expansion.

The SMART targets of the company have been framed as per the factors of specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timescale of Boots’ strategy implementation.

The first step is about bringing the new strategy so that the company can implement it on every level and with this; the figureheads also explore the possible outcomes which the company has to bear after the implementation process. After this, brand strength is assessed by Boots along with the concept of stores in the rural and urban areas (Rothaermel, 2015). It is done by following the feedback of the customers so that any sort of change in the strategy will be possible in the future. The line managers are instructed to monitor the implementation process on a quarterly basis.

The 2^nd step is about developing a market penetration as well as product development and innovation strategy which come under the limited growth strategy. All the strategies are tested in the rural and urban markets by considering the factor of revenue generation. Customer responses are also measured while implementation of the strategy is executed (Bharadwaj et al., 2013).

The 3^rd step is about gathering information based on the after effects of implementation of the strategies (Grover & Kohli, 2013). Assessment of the expected results and that of the actual results is necessary here. Then, the gap between the estimated outcome and the real outcome is identified.

4^th step of the SMART implementation strategy is about providing training and development as well as effective resource allocation for the employees so that organisation performance as well as expectations can be fulfilled as per the strategic issues of Boots.

The last step is about attaining the strategy outcomes related gaps and here, modifications and improvements are required to shape the consequences.

Conclusion

The report puts light on the several issues related to alternative strategies, implementation and evaluation of these strategies. All of these fundamental concepts constitute the first section of the report which is about understanding the approaches related to strategy evaluation. The next section of the report is about understanding the methods of strategy implementation (Grover & Kohli, 2013). In this case, Boots has been taken for the case study which is an international company that deals with the pharmacy-led health and beauty products and services. Market entry strategy and limited growth strategy are the two alternative strategies that have been comprehensively analysed in the report along with the Three Processes Evaluation Method to know about the selection and justification of the chosen strategies of Boots. Resource requirements and appropriate allocation along with the roles and responsibilities of Boots’ managers and the contribution of SMART targets during the implementation process are the main frameworks of the report that shape the latter section.

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